Nov 3, 4 2010

So Tuesday was the first part of the test.... I didn't do as good as I expected, but I did ok... It was a lot of things to remember and I didn't have notes on the majority of the test, but I answered most of the questions correctly, just a couple of hard questions that gave me a headache, but in general it was ok.

The second part on the other hand... I did really good, me and my friend got the highest marks on the class, and that putted me in the lead :D... The test was pretty much like mr. Chiarelli showed us on the review day, just a couple of tricks that I wasn't expecting, but I figured out most of them...

Today we were introduce to some pages that give style sheets for free, that way we can start to prepare for our own web page :)

Eddy

Nov 1, 2010

So all we have been doing is reviewing for the test, apparently this is like the last big test, so we better get a good mark, the seems to have 2 parts, a written one and one on the computers. We got some review for both of them, I'm guessing some parts from last year's test, so far it looks easy.

There are some questions on the review I don't know and Mr. Chiarelli does't want to tell us, so I'm gonna have to experiment to find the answers, as for the second part of the test, Mr. Chiarelli took the review up and showed us basically what we needed to do, its all matter of remembering those things and I guess I'll be good or the test

Eddy

October 27 & 28, 2010

Yesterday we took CSS a step further by creating classes. Before you would create a style for a specific command but you obviously don't want that, you want a style different parts regardless of weather is the same command or a different, thats when classes come handy. Basically to create a class you do the same as yesterday, the difference is that this time you don't apply the style to a command but instead to a variable if you will, and then every time you want that style to be used, you just convoke it by naming the class at the beginning, really neat stuff :D

Today we learned how to position stuff, and to be honest, I've been waiting for these since we started this class :P .... this is really useful when you are creating your web page, because you don't want everything perfectly lined, and most important, you sometimes want thing on top of things, and thats when this comes handy, once again, dreamweaver way is way easier than 1 page, so I'm just gonna do it there :)

Eddy

October 26, 2010

And today we finally started with CSS (Cascading Style Sheets) :) .... these were basically CSS designed to enable the separation of document content from document presentation, including elements such as the layout, colors, and fonts. With these technique you can tell the computer to make something to the design every time you use a command like h3 or something else.

Like always, sir showed us both 1st page and dreamweaver, and this time there is no doubt dreamweaver is the way to go, normally it will take a second program for 1 page to be useful, unless you memorize thousands of commands, but everything is ready in dreamweaver, and the layout makes everything way easier and more organized :)

October 21, 2010

Today we looked at iFrames, or floating frames. Unlike frames, iframes creates a frame that sits in the middle of a reg non-frames page. So technically instead of having a whole portion of a page, it will create a custom square in the middle of the page to be positioned wherever is necessary, again a useful tool for later on.

Like yesterday, Mr. Chiarelli showed us how to do it in both First Page and DreamWeaver, and again, I liked DreamWeaver better, it makes everything so much easier! We also took a look to navegation bars, which is probably the best situation to use frames, you have yo nav bar on the main page, and then when you click on a menu, the page will be displayed on the other frame.

Eddy

October 20, 2010

Today we started off by doing frames using 1st page. A frame is something like a page inside a page or so to speak, when you click a link instead of going to whole new page, it stays in that page and displays the result in a part of that page, its really neat new concept that can be helpful for some pages.

We then did the same but this time using DreamWeaver, which I think is way easier, I really don't know how Mr. Chiarelli can like 1st page better, DreamWeaver does all the dirty work for you, you only need to use a tool to draw the frame and then specify the target on the link, thats it! :P

Eddy

October 13, 2010

Today we are making templates!!!. Templates are really useful because it helps you to be efficient and consistent with all your pages, meaning the same look to every single page (menus, colors, design, etc).... For now we are gonna use DreamWeaver templates, which are good enough to make some simple design, we were also given our assignment... create our first web page and upload it to the internet!.

To make a template you basically just do it on a page, add some tables, some colours, some text, etc, and a part where you can actually modify later on, and just save it as a template. Next when you create a new page, instead of creating a blank html page, you create a new page with the previous etmplate... and there, you have your template! I think we are ready to start creating some pretty neat stuff, we'll see in or assignment

Eddy

October 8, 2010

Today we learned how to properly define a site in DreamWeaver... it helps you to be organized and at the same time it gives you the opportunity to make use of libraries... they are actually really helpful, specially if your site has a lot of pages and you need to change something that is in every single page like a menu or something, instead of changing one by one, you change one and it changes the rest! :)

To create a site you only have to set everything up on a command on the tool bar, you select the folder you are working on, plus your images folder, really really useful stuff, after that you are set. You can later select something and add it to the library, so you can add it to any page you want by dragging it... the cool thing is that like I said before, if you need to change something, you just change it once and it changes every single page automatically :D

Eddy

October 6, 2010

Today we are doing some roll over stuff. This is actually pretty fun... this is basically what you see when you roll over something with the mouse and it changes the color or the form or whatever. It is usually used in buttons for menus and stuff like that, and today we are learned how to create them ourselves :D.

So basically everything is just pictures appearing and disappearing, just like I learned in C#, but I found this method a little bit more useful, we created a button in fireworks, add the text you want, and then you use a tool to convert it into a button, that way you can just add as much buttons as you like and just change the text, then you double click it and it lets you change the image to whatever if something happens, so for example you can change the images if you click a button, or if you let it go.... after the editing part, you just export it and import it into Dreamweaver.

Today we also learned how to do photo albums....they are really easy to make, basically a program does it all for you, you just selct the pictures and the titles and the program make the code for you :P... really useful

Eddy

October 1, 2010

Today we started with Dreamweaver, which is basically a program to design web pages, way easier than FirstPage since this program does like 90% of the programming part. This program is very straight forward, just getting use to the commands like any other program. The best part of this program is that you can just edit the page like you want to see it and liek I say before, the program does do coding for you :D

Today we did some really basic stuff in Dreamweaver, basically we just created a new web page, that includes planning the site first (creating folders).. then we added the text, some tables (including row and columns) some images, working with GIF's and lastly we created links, what it took us like a week to learn in the other program took us a day to learn in this one :)

Eddy

September 27, 2010

I am working on my assignment, I obviously chose Photoshop because thats my favorite program. I'm looking and for some tricks online but I can't find anything that I really like, plus, we are suppose to do something that works on Photoshop Elements, which is a crappy version of Photoshop, I don't really like it, it lacks of like a 60% of the tools that the other Photoshop has, so I couldn't use some tricks that I knew.

Finally I decided to use only the basic tools that Photoshop has but that nobody uses. Those are Sponge Tool, the Background Eraser, and the Color Replacement Tool, plus some adjustment layers. It took me a while to decide what to do with those tools, until I decided to use them to transform Angelina Jolie into a Vampire... :D

Eddy

September 23, 2010

We have an assignment, we have to look up some trick of Photoshop or Fireworks, learn it and then present it to the class. Today sir showed us some useful tricks in Fireworks as an example of what the assignment should be like.

He started by making a text and a circle, and then making the circle the path for the text, what that basically means is that he took the text and made it go around the circle, which is a pretty neat trick :)... another trick he showed us was one with a text and a background, basically he made the text transparent, but he added an effect that makes it stand out a bit, so you know is there but is blend in with the background.

Eddy

September 22, 2010

Today we took a look to Fireworks!, we did basically some of the stuff from yesterday but in a different program, I don't really like Fireworks, at least not as much as Photoshop, but Fireworks is really useful for some things, and is has some properties that makes it easier to do certain task with it than Photoshop.

Todays lesson was the basics of Fireworks, starting from the canvas; choosing transparent and the right size. We also draw some stuff, we learn how to use the text tool, and how to do some cool effects with it or with any other drawing, he also showed us how to modify the canvas so it fits perfectly the image and lastly how to export a image to gif or jpg, or even png :)

Eddy

September 21, 2010

So we are now in graphics, today we took a look to Photoshop, which is great because I already know how to use it, sir taught us how to use some tools that might be useful in the future when we start making our own stuff.

Some of the tools he showed us was how to removed the red eyes that appear on pictures sometimes, how to use the Stamp Tool, to clone a part of the picture and that way correct some anomalies, to clone people using the exact same tool, to bring things from one picture to another picture and combine them, to replace the sky of a picture, and to correct the color, contrast and brightness of a picture... fun stuff :)

Eddy

September 16, 2010

Today we were introduced to HTML using 1st PAGE 2000!!! we learned the very basics about it, and some important concepts, and we also learned a easy way to import pictures into the page, after that we were given assignment to complete.

The assignment was simply to create a page using certain commands (center the title, bold, italics, order and unordered list and size of the text) it was done in less than 10 minutes, really basic stuff, I'm looking forward to tomorrow :)

Eddy

September 14 & 15, 2010

These two days were work periods. On Tuesday we completed the feasibility study and the flow charts, it is easier than it looks and we actually did it faster that we thought it would take us. We left the rest for Wednesday.

On Wednesday we finished everything, we did the Hipo chart and edited some stuff about previews steps, finally we printed everything and handed the project in, although we did not get any extra marks for handing the assignment earlier, we got perfect on it :)

Eddy

September 13, 2010

Today we were introduced to the "system analysis and design recap", we basically went thought the steps of what to do before actually programming and creating a web page. Time line using a GANTT chart, the request of design, the feasibility study, the data flowchart and the hipo chart.

Our assignment now is to create a Case Study (internet PIM) of an alectronic agenda, we have to go through every step I mentioned before, today my partner and I created the Gantt Chart and the request for design

Eddy

September 9, 2010

I just arrived to the class and I'm a couple of days behind, but it looks like is not a big deal, the reason I'm taking Web Design is because I want to learn as much as I can about computers, I really enjoy designing things and always thought it would be useful to know at least the basics about the development of webs, so I though this would be a good opportunity.

Today we learned the importance of a project management and team work, and we were also introduce to Smartdraw and Smart Ideas, although I have use them before for my programming class :). In these programs we learned how to do data flow diagram and a HIPO diagram.

Eddy